Revenant
by Before the Beginning
Summary: The task force is shorthanded. Names upon names and there she was. Capable. Reliable. An intense woman, indeed. Yes, I think she will be very useful… [ OC included; Main Cast but L-focused; Canon Plot Episode 9-37; Adult Language, Death/Murder, Mentions of Abuse, etc.; Very slight Canon/OC (no established relationship / PDA / intense romantic interaction) ]


_**Revenant** _ (n.) _something or someone, especially a ghost, that returns._

✝†✞†✝

 _Would that even be possible?_

The lull in the conversation gave way to a gentle knock on the door of the rented room. As the last vibrations of the sound dissipated, a new type of hush settled over the small group inside. Anxiety.

"That's her." Ryuzaki finally broke free from his train of thought that had started the silence. He reached forward to grab his tea, summoning the only companion he ever seemed to keep. "Watari, if you could, please open the door."

"Yes."

The task force watched, still wrapped up in trepidation, as the older gentleman crossed the room.

She seemed surprised to see him, but the expression didn't stay for long. Her eyes steadily searched the room before her. Five other men, four of them dressed almost identically to every single person she'd worked with previously. The fifth...

She took a step forward, allowing Watari to close the door and return to his assigned place in the room.

"Please introduce yourself," the fifth male spoke without turning to look at her.

"Aiko Fujikawa," she brought her arms in front of her and bowed to the others in the room, her Japanese heavily accented but fluent, "Zuri."

"Zuri and I worked together previously on a very high-profile case," He then glanced up at the others, all of which immediately turned to him. "She's proven herself to be very reliable and efficient. I thought that it would be nice to have the extra man power, considering how short-handed we are at the moment. I assume none of you are opposed to this?"

The other four turned back to her, none of them giving an answer either way. Giving her a mental once over.

The fifth continued, "Right. _Well_..." He tilted his head in her direction; immediately, she felt his eyes on her, pulled to his peripheral. "Before we get back to what we were talking about: Miss Zuri, I know you were briefed before your arrival in Japan, but I'd like you to stay with Watari for the rest of the evening to make sure you're caught up on all of the details." He faced her head-on, now, "I expect you to be on the same page as everyone else here- if not ahead of them- before you leave tonight. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Aiko's arms dropped back to her sides, "Thank you."

✝†✞†✝

 _Naomi Misora had vanished._

What he felt wasn't loss, exactly, but it was certainly a shame. A detriment to countless others, he was sure.

He waited until the task force had left, feet-draggingly exhausted, to let one particular vein of thought begin to find its pulse. There had been a few others who had worked under him, as Misora had, all of them competent. And at the moment the power they had was lacking.

 _The others._

An idea.

L leaned forward, chest against his knees as he reached the microphone.

"Watari, could you do me a favor?"

"Yes?"

"Could you please get me a list of those I've worked with recently? Preferably people who are available right now."

"Of course."

And the papers came in.

✝†✞†✝

Aiko sat in the back of the room, doing her best to focus on the task she'd been given as well as the conversation that had started up again. Out of the corner of her eye she'd catch a curious glance here and there.

But not from him.

She knew Watari- his voice, anyway. He had been the one she'd spoken to directly up until an hour or so ago. And, admittedly, she was more than happy to spend her evening beside him rather than with the others. Not only the small amount of familiarity, but something about the way he carried himself made him seem pleasant to her, and she was glad that she had a place to start when it came to warming up to the group as a whole.

 _But him..._

It had to be him. The way he spoke, the way he acted- there wasn't a doubt in her mind. Finally, she'd met the person she'd worked with a little more than two years ago. Someone whose passion for that case had been the only one to exceed her own.

 _L._

She, too, glanced to the side. And she wondered if- like she had felt his eyes- he felt hers on his back.

He seemed intense. Nothing she didn't expect; you have to be intense with a job many people could not survive in and keep themselves whole- mentally _and_ physically. But it didn't seem to match the way he looked. The plain and baggy clothes, the uncombed hair, the eyes of someone who slept rarely and, as she did from time to time, depended on things like sugar and caffeine for energy instead.

Back to her papers. Names upon names upon names. A list of the dead.

Her stomach soured. _Justification..? Not enough for a single person to take the initiative._

✝†✞†✝

Names upon names...

 _And there she was._

He separated her from the rest of the pile and held the paper closer too him. Round face, small eyes, small mouth, long nose- an intense woman. He'd seen her only once before. Not in person.

"Where have I..." He mumbled into the empty room, eyes quickly scanning the information he held in his hands.

 _Fujikawa, Aiko. 'Zuri'._

 _Criminologist; general law enforcement, undercover work._

 _Case-_

He let out a gentle gasp. _That case_. A human trafficking ring, child prostitution.

Aiko, the one constant. Intense, indeed. Quiet and methodical, driven mostly by logic and pushed farther by emotion. Only would have given up if someone pried her work from her cold, dead hands. And she, like him, seemed to have a personal investment in the case, an outrage that otherwise would be inexplicable.

The idea turned into a plan.

* * *

 **-{|[ Note:** _This is a personal project more than anything else; I've been stuck on my original fiction for a while now (not to mention really sick) and so I'm going to be rewriting a couple of stories that I published here a few years ago. This one, of course, is the 'new' version of "Unlikely", though to be honest I scrapped the entire plot and the OC altogether and made them brand new just for this. So far I'm really liking Aiko- and have a character sheet ready to share for anyone who wants it- and I have a pretty thorough outline for this, so I hope anyone who decides to read this feels at least somewhat the same. I know putting OCs into a canon story line can be a bit of a repellant ('It's unnecessary!' they cry, not wanting anyone to have fun and not realizing that technically no fan-work of any sort is necessary) but I'm doing my best here and I really want that to mean something. Of course, though I've agreed with some of the criticism of the earlier version (not the tone; I was literally like 12-14, what else would you expect? And be nice to kids, everyone starts somewhere and being a jerk doesn't help them to improve at all), there are some things I won't change. That being the fact that I still really just don't like Light Yagami._

 _I'll finish off with the very old and cliche request for reviews- I'd really like to know if anyone's reading and interested. You have no idea how happy it would make me._ Thank you~ Brie ]||


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